Education of 500 Pupils Under Threat

THE BASIC education of the over 500 pupils of the Kojobetiako D/ A primary school in the Ahafo Ano North District of Ashanti is under threat as the entire 14 teachers of the school have threatened to leave the school in the face of continuous defecation in the classrooms by a faceless criminal gang.

The unhealthy practice which started last year and was published by this paper has now assumed an alarming proportion leaving the leaders of Betiako, teachers and the District directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES) completely confused and worried.

All measures employed by the authorities of the town to catch the perpetrators have been unyielding. Verbal warnings from the chief and elders have not been scary enough to the perpetrators. A task force set up to help solve the problem has since not been able to find a solution to the problem.

With the continuing difficulty in unravelling the problem, opinions are now divided among the people of the town. While some people continue to blame some unscrupulous people for the act, others have given it a spiritual dimension, thus blaming some bad spirits for the act.

Those blaming the human factors as the cause argue that the perpetrators might not have been arrested because such persons might themselves claim to be vigilantes. Again they hold the view that no spirits will continue to commit such a heinous crime against the pupils of the town.

On the other hand, those giving a spiritual twist to the problem also sound convincing. Hear them: "For what reason will a group of persons continue to do this, despite the series of warnings and attempts being made to catch them?"

Chronicle investigations showed that the staff of the school is on good terms with the members of the community and no bad blood runs between the teachers and any group in the town. No ceasure of girlfriends or wives on the part of the teachers and no flagrant abuse of the pupil's rights.

When the reporter contacted the acting chief of the town, Nana Kwabena Tawiah, he explained that having failed to solve the problem with all possible human interventions, a divine answer is now being sought.

Though the chief did not elaborate on the nature of the divine intervention being sought, Chronicle gathered that the matter has been sent to the Nyamaa Shrine in Antoa in the Ashanti region for a solution to the mysterious defecation in the rooms of teaching and learning.

Teachers of the school had to embark on a one week sit down strike from February 24-28 in protest against the act when the situation worsened.

Chronicle was told by Mr. Adjei Johnson, the deputy head-teacher of the school that the problem has adversely affected teaching and learning in the school for the past two years and particularly this term (second) term.

He explained that pupils have to wash the classrooms affected every morning and rearrange the dual-desks before the commencement of lessons. As a result, lessons are always delayed by almost two hours, a situation Johnson described as very detrimental to effective teaching and learning in the school.

The district director of Education, Mrs. Doris Dora Amaniampong, at a meting with the teachers, PTA, SMC and elders of the community, stated that a request by the teachers for a transfer will have to be heeded to, if the problem continued unabated.

Threatened by this disclosure by the director, the problem has become the talk of the town and all possible interventions and solutions are being sought to have the situation normalised.

Kojobetiako Primary school is one of the biggest primary schools in the district and has a pupil population of over 500. It was one of the three schools selected in the district for the Quality Improvement in Schools (QIPS) and the Community School Alliance programmes sponsored by the United States Assistance for International Development (USAID) about 3 years ago.

Under the programmes the school had the benefit of a three classroom block and an office and a store built for them.